Stronger
by RaivynBlack
Summary: Bella is broken but is quickly put back together by her best friend Jacob black. But when he phases into a wolf and can no longer be around her, she is left with a new hole buried deep in her chest, only this time the hole has been burned into her by her anger. And the only one who can understand her pain is the rez bad boy. (AU takes place after Jake phases. Paul has not phased)
1. Chapter 1

**_AN: hey friends, so this is a new paul/bell story. let me know what you think?_**

**_BELLA POV _**

Déjà vu… Jake had called me this afternoon a week after the movie incident. He said that he was going through things and it would be best, _safest_, if he didn't see me anymore. _Safe_. What exactly could be so dangerous that Jake would say the same things that _he_ had said to me? Am I too fragile to be around a 16 year old boy who does nothing but work in his garage all day? My breath caught and my mind started swimming. Was that really why he had told me he couldn't see me anymore? Maybe he was just trying to come up with an excuse not to be around me.

I set the phone down on my dresser and slowly sank to the floor. Who was going to hold me together? I couldn't do it on my own. Sadness started to creep up into my mind and I pushed it away. I couldn't let depression consume me. If I was going to keep going I couldn't let it ruin me again. But I couldn't just ignore the feelings in my chest. In my heart.

So I let something replace the hurt. I let my anger at both of them for abandoning me take over the pain. Anger was easier than what Edward had put me through.

I needed to show Jake just exactly how tough I can be; that pain isn't a big deal and that I'm not a freaking china doll but a living breathing person who can actually take a few scrapes a bruises and come out on the other side. I would find something to prove that I was stronger than he thought.

I grabbed the yellow pages and started to flip through it. Base jumping… that's way too high for my tastes. Cave diving… I don't need to be anywhere near bats, what with the legends about vampires and all.

I laughed out loud at the image of the perfect stone-cold Cullen's morphing into small fragile bats.

Powder-puff football… there are too many girls in that, I would rather hang out on la push than do anything that requires me to spend any amount of time with girls.

I flipped through the entire yellow pages until I found something that was perfect.

I grabbed my coat and my wallet and head out to my rusty old truck. I type in an address into my phone and start driving toward the direction of the reservation.

The whole way there I was psyching myself up. I knew this was gonna be painful but that was the point. I was gonna prove to them and myself that I could take a little pain and come out on the other side.

I slowed down as I pulled up to a small one story house painted a light dingy blue with faded cream colored shutters. I stepped out of my truck and walked up to tentatively knock on the large door.

I waited a few moments before I lifted my hand to knock again when the door opened slowly.

There stood a man leaning lazily against the door that he had just opened. He was wearing only a pair of dark jeans and held a rag that he was using to wipe paint from an extremely roped stomach. At first glance he was just a man with shoulders thick with muscle, dimples that danced along his deep brown skin and thighs that looked like they could bend a steel bar; in one word: _hot_. But if you looked at him, really looked at him, you could see that as his tongue traced his sinfully full lips with anxiety every muscle in his body was pulled taught with tension. That his eyes brown eyes shone with anger; a fury that burned bright and strong and it would take a hell of a lot to put that fire out. Behind that though, there was the smallest kindling of pain. A kindling that disappeared when he smirked at me and spoke, "yes?" he asked expectantly.

_Oh crap! _He just completely caught me giving him a great bug eye-fuck. _Great_.

"Hi," I whispered. _Keep it together Bella! You came here to prove that you're tough!_ "umm… hello," I said louder, "I came to get a tattoo,"

He looked at me and raised an eyebrow at me but then stepped back from the door giving me just enough space to squeeze by but not without my chest brushing up against his.

I walked into the house and was met with a kitchen on one side and a living room on the other. The living room was small but homey, walls lined with beautiful artwork, paintings that scream of anguish warmed over. There was a large black leather couch on one end of room and a giant easel with a canvass on it that had a painting, of an Indian boy with long hair standing on the edge of a cliff with a look of pure joy on his face and his arms wide almost embracing the nothingness ahead of him, halfway complete, "that beautiful," I said gesturing to the unfinished painting.

"Thank you," he said gesturing me towards a long hallway, "it's of my older brother, Jared- well my best friend really; I have just always considered him a brother. We used to cliff dive together during the warmer days of the summer,"

He put his hand on the small of my back as he nudged me into a room. In the room was vanity with an array of plastic containers and vials of colorful liquids on it, a small massage table in the middle of the room and a rolling stool. He looked at the table poignantly and I took a seat on it.

"So what are you looking into getting…?"

"It's Bella, and I'm not quite sure yet, I was hoping to have some ideas by now," he rolled his eyes at me and picked up a small binder from the corner of the vanity and handed it to me. I began flipping through it. As I was flipping through the binder I glanced down at the long scar on the arm that was holding the binder and I knew what I wanted.

"How about a butterfly, maybe a tramp stamp?" he said with a wink.

I closed the book and started scanning the room, "do you have paper and pen?" I asked him

He handed me a white sheet of paper and a cup of colored pencils, and I began to draw what I wanted. When I was finished I handed him the paper, "I want this, over the scar on my arm," I held out my forearm to him.

He glanced at my scar then looked at the paper that held one thing:

He gave a little approving noise and set the paper back on the vanity, "Okay, well I need to make you aware of the fact that tattoos over scar tissue hurt almost twice as much as any tattoo you can get,"

"Good," I said.

He looked at me like I was crazy but he sighed and said, "Okay. Well this is going to be $60 flat and I'm going to need to see some ID,"

I pulled out my wallet showed him my ID and handed him $70. He prepped my arm and then filled a tiny cup, almost like the ones they give you to take communion, with a deep red ink and got to work.

It hurt like hell. Luckily I had endured vampire venom and nothing could touch the pain of burning from the inside out. But it didn't change the fact that I was in pain. I bit into my lip until I tasted blood and held back a scream.

45 minutes and a lot of pain later, he was done and wrapping my forearm in a thing white gauze.

"Thank you, it looks amazing! I'm really happy with it," I beamed. It really was exactly what I needed to prove to them that I was indeed, stronger.

"You were tough, Girl," he said to me, "I've never seen a girl take a needle like you just did," he said a little proud.

I felt heat creep into my cheeks, the tell tale sign of a light blush. He chuckled under his breath and walked out toward the front room.

I stood there staring at the beautiful paintings that lined the wall and an idea came popped into my brain, "do you paint all of these yourself?" I asked. He nodded at me and I quickly asked my next question,

"So I have this really annoying art class that I have to take, not that art is annoying it's just that I'm bad at it, and for my final project I have to paint a self portrait and I was wondering if maybe you could give me lessons. You know kind of teach me the basics of painting? I kind of spaced out the majority of the semester and I have no idea what I'm doing," I finished in a hurry.

He looked at me like he was thinking it over and I added, "And I can pay you obviously,"

"okay." He pulled out a small black touch screen phone, well why don't you give me your number and I will text you so we can work out the details?"

"Sounds good," I said as I saved my number into his phone. I headed to the door but at the last minute I realized something and I stopped, "I feel kind of foolish but I never got your name,"

"Paul. Paul Lahote."

_**AN: sooo... what did you think. let me know! also im writing a series of oneshot wolf pack smut and i need your guys's prompts in order to write them so give me those also. **_

_**love love, **_

_**zoe / raivynblack**_


	2. Chapter 2

**_A/N:_**_**yes. i am a horrible person who doesn't update my stories in a timely manner and im terribly sorry. **_

**_BELLA POV _**

I went home exited about my new tattoo and the fact that I might pass this ridiculous class, and almost as soon as I stepped into the house my phone buzzed from my pocket.

_Hey Bella, it's Paul. When do you want to start this thing? –P_

_Um… ASAP? –B_

_How about you stop by tomorrow and we can hit an art store get what you need and figure out the details? –P_

_Sure! Sounds great. What time? –B_

_Ten? –P _

_Ten. –B _

I put my phone away and ran upstairs to grab a long-sleeved shirt. I may be 18 but there is no way Charlie would be okay with me getting a tattoo. I would have to ease him into the idea.

I went to call Jake to tell him about the tattoo I got but then remembered my reasoning for getting it and put the phone back down on the receiver. Well, if I couldn't call him or talk to him how was I going to show him the tattoo? Maybe it was more for me than for him. Maybe I needed to prove to myself that I wasn't so breakable.

I sighed and laid down across my bed. I really needed to stop over thinking my every move. This day had been exhausting. From thinking Jake was dying of mono to my heart breaking because he wouldn't be there to hold me together to realizing that I didn't need him to hold me together anymore. I had been broken again and again and was stronger for it. I had myself and that's all I needed for the moment.

"Bella, that you?" I heard Charlie yell from downstairs

"No dad, there's an intruder in my room, get him." I deadpanned. I mean who else would it be? He climbed the stairs and hovered around my door, "Ha. Ha." He said.

"How was your day, catch any bad guys?"

"By if bad guys you mean kids making out in their car on the side of the road then yes, yes I did," he tried to joke but he had a grimace on face like it reminded him of something he would rather forget, "speaking of making out and cars, I know you've been spending a lot of time with Jake, and don't get me wrong I'm excited that you are finally giving him the time of day but Bells…"

Ugh! I groaned. "Char- dad, Jake and I are just friends," I didn't feel the need to tell him about today Jake or the tattoos, plus I would probably need a cover for when I go to Paul's for the lessons. I couldn't very well tell him, 'hey daddy! I'm going down to la push to get art lessons from a sexy Quileute tattoo artist alone in his house. Oh! How do I know said artist? Well he gave me a tattoo that I got because I was pissed at Jake.'

No thank you.

He would probably grumble something under his breath about a nude portrait and then ground me until I'm married. Ugh.

"Sure sure," he said. He had been around the Black household for too long. "Making dinner?"

"Not tonight dad, I'm going to order pizza and then hit the hay, I'm not hungry,"

"Okay, night," he said closing my door.

I grabbed the phone and called the local pizza place and then changed into some sweats. When I went to sleep all I could thing about was painting on delicious abs.

**_PAUL POV _**

I woke up feeling like I couldn't breathe. I let my eyes drift open to see blonde hair sprawled out on my bare chest. I gently pushed her off of me trying to get the pressure to lighten on my lungs. The girl that was in bed was someone that came in for a tattoo of a butterfly as a tramp-stamp, the very thing I made fun of when talking to Bella yesterday. But she had a kick-ass body and was eager to jump into my bed so I thought why-the-fuck not. That's usually how I think when it comes to these types of girls: hot and eager for a taste of me.

I roll over and check my phone. 9:57. Shit, Bella will be here in a few minutes and I still have a very naked hot blonde in my bed; so much for discretion. Oh well, I gently nudged the girl lying in my bed. Damn, what's her name? Sarah, Samantha, Sabrina..? It could be Satan for all I care just as long as I can get her out of here soon. She made a few sleepy noises before her eyes opened and she registered where she was.

"Hey," she said with a smile

"Morning," I said as I slid some dark jeans on, "so not to be a total asshole," who am I kidding I'm always an asshole with these girls, "but you gotta go, I have a client coming in three minutes," she smiled at me but had obvious disappointment in her eyes. She threw on her crop top and low riding jeans and headed toward the door. I opened the front door with one hand while wrestling my shirt on with the other and there was none other than Bella Swan standing at my door staring at me half naked ushering a hot blonde out of my house.

"Oh um… I'm sorry… I uh… hi Paul," Bella mumbled out blushing, obviously embarrassed as if I had thrown the blonde down and started fucking her right in the doorway. I snorted and gave the blonde a little nudge out the door.

"So, my motorcycle or your truck?" I asked once the blonde had safely driven away.

"Huh," she said brilliantly.

"Well, you need to get art supplies so how would you like to get there?"

"Oh… well my truck," she said to me and started walking toward her little red piece of junk as I locked up my home. I sat inside the car and decided that small talk might make this little paleface loosen up a bit.

"So what exactly do you need help with," she a surprised laugh escaped her lips and it was a fascinating sound.

"I'm terrible. At art I mean, I'm not expecting you to work any miracles but a little improvement would be nice. The self-portrait should be done with paint but I also need to be able to work with pastels and sketch. I know it's a lot and will probably seem like more once you actually see what I can, or can't really, do but I could really use the help,"

"No problem, I'm a very good teacher," I said with a wink. This girl was wound so tight and I loved to rile 'em up, have a little fun. She seriously needed to relax. She blushed again and it made me want to see how far down that blush went.

The rest of the drive to port A was eerily quiet and horribly awkward. It was almost as if this girl had never been alone with a guy before.

When we made it to a small art supply store in PA I relaxed it bit. We browsed the isles and I took the time to explain to her the differences between different types of paints, canvases and surfaces to paint on. I led her to my favorite section of the store and began looking at different brush sets when I felt a prickle at the back of my neck. The kind of subtle tingly you get when someone is staring at you. I could only assume that Bella felt it too when I followed her gaze behind me to a skinny dark hair boy approaching us. Bella stiffened and reached over to lace her fingers in mine as the boy got closer. I looked at her with questioning eyes but she wouldn't meet my gaze. It seemed that suddenly her sneakers were very interesting.

"Belllaaaa!" the boy sang to her, "how's it going girl, haven't seen you around in awhile,"

"I'm okay," Bella said glancing at her shoes then back up at me with pleading in her eyes. The boy blatantly glared at me before shooting a smile back at Bella. "Oh sorry, Tyler this is my boyfriend Paul, Paul this is a friend from school, Tyler," she said looking at me begging with her eyes to go along with it. Tyler instantly deflated looking shot down even though it was obvious he didn't stand a chance with this girl.

"I didn't know you were seeing anybody after the Cullen's left,"

"Yeah well, I decided that moving on was probably for the best,"

"Tyler it was very nice to meet you but we have some shopping to get done," I said to him with an obviously superior sneer. I played the jealous boyfriend role very well.

"Can I help you find anything?" he said with the smallest bit of hope in his eyes.

"nope I think we have it from here," I said nudging Bella in the other direction, "come on dear, let's see if we can find any body paint around here, that could be… _fun." _I gently slapped her ass then watched Tyler walk away dejectedly.

As soon as we were out of earshot Bella dropped my hand and turned to me, "oh my god I am so sorry it's just that Tyler keeps trying to corner me to ask me to homecoming and I really just cannot go to homecoming with him. I swear that boy has like eight arms and always finds a way to put all of them on me at once," she shuddered a bit before her eyes sprang open again, "oh god you have a girlfriend too! I'm terribly sorry! I've known you for a total of 5 minutes and I can't believe I just did that…"

"Bella!" I interrupted her, "Bella, its fine, I don't have a girlfriend, the girl you saw this morning was just a friend. You can use me as your fake boyfriend anytime," I said with a wink. She blushed again; I swear that she was almost permanently tinted pink with how easily she got embarrassed. I threw my arms around her waist and stared guiding her through the isle again and when she looked back at me confused I just shrugged and said, "gotta keep up the charade," she looked resigned and just kept scanning the shelves looking for the perfect set of brushes.

As we were checking out, in Tyler's line none the less, I kept my arms wrapped around her waist and every so often I would kiss her on her cheek or the top of her head. When I leaned down and placed a soft kiss to the spot where her neck met her shoulder she shivered and buried herself closer to my body. Interesting. She handed Tyler the money and his eyes nearly popped out of his head as he saw her tattoo.

"Holy shit Swan! When did you get inked?"

"Oh um… yesterday. Paul did it. He is kind of freakishly talented," she said to him.

"In more ways than one," I said with a wink in her direction and man! If I thought she got bright before it was nothing compared to the tomato red that spread across her cheeks now.

Tyler chuckled softly and continued to gape at her tattoo, "but why a wolf head?"

She looked up at him and replied, "I heard some stories that my best friend… well formerly best friend, had told me once and it made me think about all of the things I want to be that I'm not. Strong, brave, beautiful, fierce, confident. I just think it's a good motivator and symbol for who I want to be someday,"

"Wow swan, who knew you were so deep?" he said handing her back her change and the brushes and paints she got.

We got back to her truck and I let go of her waist to get into the passenger side, "just so you know little bird, you _are already _beautiful, don't need a tat to inspire that in you," I whispered looking into her eyes. She looked back at me and cleared her throat.

"You don't have to pretend to be sweet to me anymore. But thanks," she said.

"Oh I'm not pretending," I replied as she pulled out of the lot and headed back to the rez.

**_leave me love please! i would greatly appreciate any feedback you have dearies! _**


End file.
